Definitely get trip insurance. While you might not fly back to the US, you might want to go somewhere specific depending on the seriousness of the illness/accident. Also, your current health insurance might not fully cover expenses abroad. It is a bit scary when a child is sick overseas; you want options.
As for studying Mandarin, if you are going to be in China in the winter a great place to live is Xiamen on the southeast coast. It has mostly clean air, tropical weather, and a relaxed atmosphere...and plenty of great language teachers. I spent 5 months there with my then 10 year old. I had hoped to go to Beijing, but was so glad in the end to be assigned Xiamen. We would not have survived the air pollution of Beijing for 5 months.
Point taken about trip insurance. We're definitely interested in learning more about the options available. Do you have experience with any specific companies that you would recommend? What did you and your son do while you were in China?
Thanks for the tip on Xiamen. It looks beautiful there. I'd love to go check it out.
Since we have friends in Beijing with a son who is the same age as our daughter and the kids communicate on WeChat almost every day, our plan is to go to Beijing at the start of our stay in China. We're thinking we'll study for a month or so at a language school in Beijing before taking off to travel around and explore the country. We're planning to move around the country and study at more than one language school, rather than studying continuously for several months or a year in one place. We want to learn some Mandarin, and then go out and use it with real people while we're exploring China. When we find a place that we like, we'll settle down again for a month or more and study some more, before continuing on our way.
Sounds like a fabulous plan. So much fun and a great learning opportunity for all of you!
I've recently been reading a book on retiring overseas. In it there are lot of pieces of information on insurance -- travel and health types. They talk about good and bad types and mention: a hospital insurance plan, travel insurance, internet based insurance policies, local (in country) medical insurance policies, and international medical insurance policies. I know you're not looking to retire abroad at this point, but maybe a book like this might give you some ideas of what is out there and what might best fit your needs.
@SecretlySaving, I'd love to know the name/author of the book you mentioned as well. :)
Health insurance plans in Hawaii generally do not have good out-of-network benefits, because most people in the islands don't need them, and they raise the cost of the plans significantly. Unfortunately, that means you don' t have easy access to a plan that will cover your needs while travelling. You might want to look into some of the RV sites that cater to a mobile population - there are many thousands of retirees living in RV's caravaning around the US.
Thanks for the suggestion on checking RV sites to see what people on there are doing for insurance. That's a good idea. I'll definitely look into that.
Regarding your time in China, have you looked in to getting the necessary visas to stay in China long term, more than 30 days? They can be difficult and expensive to acquire if you don't plan it correctly. I would pick a city and school first and have them help you with the visa paperwork since you will need to submit documents from them to get your visa. Also, remember that you need to do all of the paperwork in person, so make sure you end up in that situation, if not you have to pay for a handling service.
I would also avoid Beijing due to the pollution. I spent some time in Shanghai, and it is difficult to imagine how it can impact your life so much. You might want to see if Hangzhou is your speed. I hear it is beautiful and the air is cleaner.http://aqicn.org/city/hangzhou/
We've gotten visas and been to China twice before, the first time we stayed 2 months and more recently we stayed for 2 weeks. Luckily, the visa situation is better for Americans now than it used to be. Presidents Obama and Xi met recently and agreed to grant 10 year multiple-entry tourist/student visas to each other's citizens. A few weeks ago I met a Chinese woman who told me that she had recently gotten a 10-year multiple-entry tourist visa for the U.S. I've read that it's uncertain whether the Chinese government will completely live up to its side of the agreement and routinely grant 10-year visas to American citizens as well, but we're hopeful that we'll at least be able to get one year multiple entry tourist visas before leaving for China. Both times we went to China in the past we've gotten visas by FedExing our passports to the Chinese Consulate, once in Tokyo and once in L.A. (I think?). You're right, it's kind of a pain to get the China visa, but I'll bet it's even harder for Chinese people to get a visa to come to the U.S...
Thanks for the tip on Hangzhou. We haven't been there yet, but I recently met three women from there, and they're now my "friends" on WeChat (Chinese FaceBook). One of the women has a son who is my daughter's age, so we may end of there at some point to visit with them.
I agree with you on the pollution in Beijing. That's why we're not planning on staying there too long. It's just going to be our starting place.
Awesome plan, congratulations! Sounds a lot like my plan, but as you have a 6-year old you are probably 25 years younger than I am and way ahead of me!
I've traveled to Ulan-Bator by train but the journey to Vladivostok is on my wish list. I just have one comment about Beijing and China in general. I've visited that country over a dozen times since the early 80s and really loved it. You should definitely spend quality time to explore this vast country by road or railroad, but if I were to spend any extended period of time to study Mandarin, it would not be in Beijing (which is still a very interesting city) and my #1 choice would be Taiwan.
Do you know the Man in Seat 61? (
http://www.seat61.com/) That guy's got amazingly detailed information on epic rail trips all over the world. If you haven't seen his site yet, definitely check it out. He's got a whole section on his website on the Trans-Siberian/Mongolian Railways.
Our plans are still in flux. We aren't planning on spending an extended time in Beijing. Since we have some friends there, we're planning on starting our China journey there, but as you said, China is a huge country that deserves to be explored, and staying only in Beijing would be a waste in my opinion. Just in the last two days since I started this thread, my wife and I have been going back and forth about our plans. Now we're thinking of maybe flying from Hawaii directly to Beijing, exploring China for anywhere between a month and year, and then taking the trans Mongolian railway from Beijing to Europe and checking out Europe after China. We're also definitely planning on going to Taiwan and possibly studying Mandarin there as well. It'll be nice to be free to go where we like, when we like, without having to worry about having to return home at any particular time to go back to a job. :)
Peter Hessler has written some good books on his travels in China. One of them I liked was Country Driving
http://www.amazon.com/Country-Driving-Chinese-Road-Trip/dp/006180410X. Peter rented cars in Beijing and spent months (in clear violation of his rental contract :)) driving thousands of miles all over China but especially along the route of the Great Wall. If you're thinking of travelling around China by car, that book may be an interesting read before you go.
